The survey, which polled 13 investors with more than €115bn of assets under management, found that for the first time in the survey’s history, one investor expects world growth prospects to be negative.

At the same time expectations of how equity markets will perform over the next six months have been reduced by half for the Asian (excluding Japan) and emerging markets, while six month forecasts for the US stand at just 1.6 per cent.

“We expect to see continued high levels of volatility in the financial markets and heightened uncertainty about the deteriorating macro-economic outlook,” says Bob Doll, chief investment officer for global equities at BlackRock. “Having said that, we believe concerns about a US or global recession is exaggerated. The non-financial corporate sector remains in a strong position, enjoying solid profitability, healthy balance sheets, and few signs of excess investments.

Despite the mortgage crisis, however, 23.1 per cent of investors intend to increase their equity market holdings before April next year and just two investors plan to decrease it. At the same time, 53.8 per cent of investors plan to raise their private equity exposure over the next six months, 15.4 per cent intend to increase their commodity holdings and a third plan to invest more in hedge funds. One investor plans to increase its allocation to property. (See page 14 for full survey)

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